n.a.
WATER QUALITY CONTROL ORDINANCE
Section 100. Pollution of Waters - Public Policy of Tribe
a. Whereas the pollution of the waters under the
jurisdiction of the Tribes constitutes a menace to
public health and welfare, is harmful to wildlife, fish
and aquatic life, and impairs domestic, agri-cultural,
industrial, recreational, cultural, and other legitimate
beneficial uses of water, and whereas such pollution is
contrary to the best interest of the Cheyene-Arapaho
Tribes, it is hereby declared to be the public policy of
the Tribes to protect, maintain, and improve the quality
thereof for public water supplies, for the propagation
of wildlife, fish and aquatic life, and for domestic,
agricultural, recreational, and other beneficial uses;
to provide that no waste be discharged into any waters
under the jurisdiction of the Tribes without first being
given the degree of treatment necessary to protect the
legitimate beneficial uses of such waters; to provide
for the prevention, abatement, and control of new or
existing water pollution; to place in priority those
control measures directed toward the elimination of
pollution which creates hazards toward the public
health; to insure consideration of financial problems
imposed on water polluters through the pursuit of these
objectives; and to cooperate with other agencies of the
Tribes, state agencies, and the federal government in
carrying out these objectives.
Section 101. The authority for this Ordinance is Article IV,
Section 2, of the Constitution and By-Laws of the Cheyenne-
Arapaho Tribes of Oklahoma
Section 102. Definition of Terms. The following words and
phrases, when used in this Ordinance, have the meanings
ascribed to them:
a. "Pollution" means such artificial or induced natural
contamination, or other alteration of the physical,
chemical, biological, and radiological properties, of
any waters of the reservation, or such discharge of any
liquid gaseous, or solid substance into any waters of
the reservation, or such discharge of any liquid
gaseous, or solid substance into any waters of the
reservation as will create a nuisance or render such
waters harmful or detrimental or injurious to public
health, safety, welfare, or to domestic, commercial,
industrial, agricultural, cultural, recreational, or
other beneficial uses, or to livestock, wild animals,
birds, fish or other aquatic life.
b. "Water of the Reservation" means all streams, lakes,
ponds, water courses, wells, springs, irrigation
systems, drainage systems, and all other bodies of
water, surface and underground, natural and artificial,
public or private, which are contained within, flow
through, or border upon lands under the Tribes
jurisdiction or any portions thereof, except that bodies
of water confirmed to and retained within the limits of
private property which do not develop into or constitute
a nuisance, or a public health hazard, or a menace to
fish and wildlife, shall not be considered to be "waters
or the reservation" under this definition.
c. "Person" means an individual, corporation, partnership,
association, state or political subdivision
thereof, federal agency, state agency, municipality
or interstate body.
d. "Pollutant" means dredged spoil, dirt, slurry, solid
waste, incinerator residue, sewage, sewage sludge,
garbage, trash, chemical waste, biological nutrient,
biological material, radioactive material, wrecked or
discarded equipment, rock, sand or any municipal,
industrial or agricultural waste.
e. "Effluent limitation" means any limitation on prohibition
established under Tribal law on quantities,
rates, and concentration of chemical, physical, biological,
and other constituents which are discharged
from point sources into land under the jurisdiction
of the Tribes, including but not limited to standards
of performance for new sources, toxic effluent
standards, and schedules of compliance.
f. "Permit" means permit issued under this Ordinance.
g. "Point source" means any discernible, confined and
discrete conveyance, including but not limited to
any pipe, ditch, channel, tunnel, conduit, well,
containers, rolling stock, concentrated animal feeding
operation, or vessel, from which pollutants are
or may be discharged.
h. "Schedule of Compliance" means schedule of remedial
measures and times including an enforceable sequence
of actions or operations leading to compliance with
any control regulations or effluent limitation.
Section 103. Water Quality Control Commission
a. There is hereby created a Tribal Water Quality Control
Commission, and the Commission shall exercise its
powers and perform its duties and functions as specified
in this Article, and which Commission shall consist of
the Director of Tribal Health, two environmental
health workers, and 4 enrolled Tribal members
appointed by the Tribal Chairman. Appointments
must be made to include agricultural, industrial,
wildlife, cultural training within its own membership;
although no specific number of its members
shall be required to be so trained.
b. Of the four members appointed by the Tribal Chairman,
each shall serve four years, except the first four
appointed, one shall be appointed for 2 years, one
shall be appointed for 3 years, and two shall be
appointed for 4 years. The Tribal Chairman may fill
any vacancy in the appointed membership of the
Commission, and may remove any appointed member for
cause.
c. Each member of the Commission not otherwise in the
full-time employment of the Tribe shall receive a per
diem of ($ ) dollars for each day actually and
necessarily spent in the discharge of his duties, but
not exceeding __________ hundred ($ ) dollars in
any one year; and all members shall be reimbursed for
necessary travel and expenses incurred in the performance
of their official duties.
d. The appropriate Tribal Department shall furnish the
Commission with copies of maps, plans, documents,
studies, surveys and all other necessary information
in order that the Commission shall be fully cognizant
of natural resource development, economic development,
that status of water pollution control, and to enable
the Commission to advise the Planning Department in
development of programs for the prevention and control
of pollution of the waters of the reservation.
e. All Commission members shall have a vote, five members
shall constitute a quorum, and the concurrence of a
majority of a quorum of the Commission in any matter
within its powers and duties shall be required for
any determination made by the Commission.
Section 104. Duties of Water Quality Control Commission
a. The Commission shall maintain in effective program for
prevention and control of water pollution and for water
quality protection and, in that connection, shall have,
and may exercise the following powers and duties:
1. Classify waters of the reservation in accordance
with Section 105;
2. Establish water quality standards in accordance
with Section 106;
3. Establish control regulations in accordance
with Section 107;
4. Establish waste discharge permit regulations
in accordance with Sections 106 and 107.
5. Perform duties assigned to the Commission in
Section 108 with respect to location, design,
construction and operation of individual sewage
disposal systems;
6. Review, at intervals of not more than three years,
classification of waters, water quality standards,
and control regulations which it has established;
and
7. Perform other duties as may be assigned to it.
b. The Commission shall be broad and flexible to the end
that the policy of the Tribe is declared in Section 100.
c. The Commission and Tribal Health Board shall hold a
joint meeting during the month of September of each year
to hear public comments on water pollution problems,
alleged sources of water pollution, and availability of
remedies.
Section 105. Classification of Waters of the Reservation
a. The Commission shall classify all waters of reservation.
b. The types of classes shall be determined by regulations
and may be based upon or intended to indicate or
describe any relevant characteristic such as:
1. The extent of pollution or the maximum contaminant
level to be tolerated as a goal;
2. Whether or not pollution arises from natural
sources;
3. Present uses of the water, the uses for which the
water is suitable in its present condition, or
the uses for which it is to become suitable as
a goal;
4. The character and uses of the land bordering the
water;
5. The need to protect the quality of water for human
purposes, including cultural and traditional
religious purposes, and also for the protection and
propagation of wildlife and aquatic life; or
6. Type and character of the water such as surface
or sub-surface, lake, stream or ditch, volume
flow, depth, stream gradient, temperature, surface
area involved, and daily or seasonal variability of
any such characteristics.
Section 106. Water Quality Standards
a. Water quality shall be established by the Commission
by regulation which describe water characteristics or
to the extent of specifically identified pollutants
for waters of the reservation:
1. Toxic substances;
2. Suspended solids, colloids, and combinations of
solids with other suspended substances;
3. Bacteria, fecal coliform, fungi, viruses, and
other biological constituents and characteristics;
4. Dissolved oxygen, and the extent of demanding
substances;
5. Phosphates, nitrates or other dissolved nutrients;
6. PH and hydrogen compounds;
7. Chlorine, heavy metals, and other chemical
constituents;
8. Salinity, acidity and alkalinity;
9. Trash, garbage, oil and greases, and other foreign
material;
10. Taste, color, odor and turbidity; and
11. Temperature
Section 107. Control Regulations
a. The Commission shall establish regulations for the
following purposes:
1. To describe prohibitions, standards, concentrations
and effluent limitations on the extent of specifically
identified pollutants, such as those in
Section 106 that any person may discharge into any
specified class of reservation waters.
2. To describe pre-treatment requirements,
prohibitions, standards, concentrations, and
effluent limitations on waste any person may
discharge into any class of water of the
reservation from any facility, process, activity,
or waste pile including but not limited to:
meat products and rendering processing;
dairy products processing;
grain mills;
cement manufacturing;
feedlots;
electroplating;
organic chemical manufacturing;
plastic, and synthetic material manufacturing;
fertilizer manufacturing;
oil and gas transportation;
petroleum refining;
phosphate manufacturing;
electric power plants;
leather tanning and finishing;
rubber processing; and
timber products processing.
3. To describe precautionary measures, both mandatory
and prohibitory, that must be taken by any person
owning, operating, conducting or maintaining any
facility, process or activity, or waste pile that
does or might cause any pollution of any waters of
the reservation in violating of control regulations
or cause the quality of any waters of the
reservation to be in violation of any water quality
standard.
b. In the formation of each control regulation, the
Commission shall consider the following:
1. The need for regulations that control discharges of
specified pollutants that are the subject to water
quality standards for the receiving waters of the
reservation:
2. The degree to which any type of discharge is subject
to treatment, the availability, practicality, and
technical and economic feasibility of treatment
techniques; and the extent to which the discharge to
be controlled is significant;
3. The continuous, intermitten, or seasonal nature of
the discharges to be controlled;
4. Whether a regulation that is applicable to discharge
into flowing water should be written in such a way
that the degree of pollution tolerated or treatment
required will be dependent upon the volume that
receiving water or the extent or the extent to which
the discharge is diluted therein, or the capacity of
the receiving water to assimilate the discharge; and
5. The needed specifications of safety precautions that
should be taken to protect water quality including,
but not limited to, requirements for the keeping
of logs and other records, requirements to protect
sub-surface waters in connection with mining
exploration, surface mining, and the drilling and
operation of wells, and requirements as to
settling ponds, holding tanks, and other treatment
facilities for water that will or might run into
waters of the reservation.
c. The Commission shall cooperate with state, federal and
any other agencies with regulatory power to avoid
establishing unnecessary or redundant control
regulations.
Section 108. Individual Sewage Disposal System
a. Upon request of any person, the Commission shall review
the adequacy of local community control of individual
sewage disposal systems that are applicable to any
portion of the reservation in which the soil, geological
conditions, or other factors indicate the unregulated
flow from one or more individual disposal systems would
or might pollute the waters of the reservation. After
such review and upon any finding of inadequacy, the
Commission shall enact a control regulation for the area
involved which shall identify such area by legal
description and shall also specify the terms and
conditions for individual sewage disposal systems construction,
use, design, maintenance, spacing, and
location that shall be applicable in such area.
Back to the Table of Contents
|